Zond Mission

The Zond Program was one of two lunar exploration programs conducted by the Soviet Union to investigate the Moon and its vicinity. This program began in 1964 and ended in 1979. While the Zond program is considered here as a lunar program, it should be noted that Zond 1 was sent in the direction of Venus and Zond 2 in the direction of Mars. Also, the later Zond missions (4-8) were tests for manned lunar missions as well as missions for collecting information about the Moon. Selected Zond missions are noted in the following list.

Although the majority of the Zond flights were oriented toward gathering information about the techniques and technologies needed to get astronauts to the Moon and back safely, they did collect other information of scientific interest. Instrumentation flown on these missions gathered data on micrometeor flux, solar and cosmic rays, magnetic fields, radio emissions, and solar wind. Biological payloads were also flown and many photographs were taken.